A Teensy Little Attendance Problem
by robert3A-SN
Summary: Greendale is put on hiatus and Annie cannot cope without schoolwork, grades or the study room. Once again, her addictions get the better of her - but she also has a history of finding the strength to recover from those addictions as well.


**The term "teensy little attendance problem" is taken from the cast's recent "Save Greendale" parody video for College Humor at .com/video/6664700/save-greendale-with-the-cast-of-community**

The rumors that Greendale might have a "teensy little attendance problem" were first spread after the New Year. It wasn't new news that the school had attendance problems and couldn't attract mainstream student demographics, so it was easier to ignore these latest numbers.

But after it got out that the school's most annoying asexual teacher murdered his next-to-last Glee club, it was pretty much the last straw. More and more students over the last two years dreamed of the day when Glee club and Mr. Rad would be taken down so better, more deserving clubs would get better attendance. Yet since it became so powerful in the first place, the impact of how it went down hit that much harder, as it was the last straw that made on edge students and doubtful newcomers drop out.

Before this, the study group was considered folk heroes deserving of their own statue next to Luis Guzman. Yet to everyone's surprise, the end of Glee club and the prospect of Mr. Rad being hunted down for mass murder was the worst thing that could have happened. This would have gotten the group tarred and feathered – if they or anyone else could have come back to Greendale.

Now the "attendance problem" had finally gotten bad enough to get the school closed for indefinite hiatus. To some this was a relief, and to others it was a welcome break after the madness and darkness of the last semester. Others were worried that the school wouldn't reopen again, or that it would just close for good after burning off the spring semester – which would now probably stretch into summer.

Yet for all the varied reactions, fears and mixed emotions over this hiatus, none could compare to those living inside Annie. Most likely, a good deal of the student body outside her study group was relieved about that; and relieved that her certain nervous breakdown would be far away from them.

In truth, Annie was pretty mellow by her standards during the hiatus rumors. Of course, that might have been because she was busy reading ahead for her next classes, as per usual, and never even considered that the school might close. When it finally happened, there were no ear-splitting yells or weaponized Disney tears either. She just reread ahead for her classes once again, to get ready for when she could take them after all.

During the regularly scheduled break, Annie did allow herself to make time for winter adventures and games with Troy and Abed. And during the first two weeks of the shutdown, she even joined them in watching reruns of the study group's past ordeals from Abed's various videos. But by the time Abed talked about making reboot movies of those events, Annie had to pass, citing that she still had to prepare for when school reopened.

Annie knew that she was lying and she just didn't want to be reminded that they weren't really at Greendale; and she knew that Abed knew. Yet he at least waited until he thought she was out of hearing range to explain it to Troy and run off what movies and shows this was like. Even that didn't make Annie smile, since she was even more aware that she should be hearing this in the study room and Abed should be sitting across from her right now. They should all be sitting around her and futilely poking holes in Abed's pop culture logic. But the group wasn't together in the study room now and they were getting together less and less outside of it as well.

Even if Annie forced them to come by more, and braved the certain jokes and accusations about being paranoid and missing Greendale too much, it wouldn't be the same. However, even if she couldn't recreate the study room, she could recreate her next favorite things to do at Greendale.

By now, she had read all her books for her future classes cover to cover; so much so that she could make up tests and projects for all her classes. She could always do that, of course, yet now there was nothing to stop her from just daydreaming about it. As such, Annie spent the next two weeks of the shutdown in her room making her own tests, trying to make them hard enough to give her the pretense of a challenge, and trying in vain to forget some of the answers before test time.

This gave her more satisfaction in remembering answers she already knew, and getting the perfect scores she would have gotten even if she didn't make the test. At least that was the goal; which got harder for Annie when she heard Troy and Abed film their "Greendale Season 1" reboots and remembered why she couldn't go to the study room to get peace and quiet.

There were only so many tests Annie could create from this material; and there were even only so many dioramas, believe it or not. She couldn't ask her friends for more diorama supplies, since they weren't supposed to know what she was doing in their increased amount of time apart. So Annie went out more and more to get supplies; and to make sure no one in the group had a chance of running into her, she found herself going to stores where City College students bought supplies.

Naturally, hearing about the projects and school work they were doing didn't help Annie's state of mind. At the least, her mind was still stable enough to put together a good payment plan with one of the City College students. For the right amount of money every week, he would trade Annie one of his syllabuses from City College, and she would go home and do as many of the assignments as she could.

Paying for the syllabuses and getting the necessary books and supplies did eat into her budget, and Abed would probably keep quiet with his certain suspicions for only so long. Yet as long as Annie could finally do real work and at least earn a 4.0 GPA in her bedroom, it was harder to care.

The bottom fell out on the eighth week of the hiatus, as Annie finally ran out of money to trade for syllabuses. She insisted to her dealer that she was good for it eventually, and that just a little taste of a Biology midterm would get her by and help her raise the money. Annie insisted so hard, she didn't find it suspicious how the dealer made her repeat the exact details of their arrangement in the meantime.

Yet she paid for that when he pulled out an audio recording of their conversation, revealed that Dean Spreck was too bored without Greendale to mess with, and made him make Annie incriminate herself. Once he gave the Dean the audio proof, he'd send copies to all her friends and revel in whatever misery it brought the study group. Apparently this would make Dean Pelton more vulnerable to a more elaborate and convoluted revenge plot when Greendale reopened. But instead of giving more away, the dealer finally decided to shut up and run before Annie got the bright idea to just steal the tape.

He got away with just three seconds to spare, which left Annie back to being overwhelmed again when it all sunk in. Once this got out, the group would never let Annie live it down and she'd seem even more childish and obsessed to them than ever. By the time she considered which specific people would find her more childish than ever, she had to get away and find something to distract her.

But that only reminded Annie that she still hadn't gotten her midterm fix, which went back to consuming her mind by the time she found herself at the mall. She was pretty much walking on autopilot, blind to most of her surroundings and trying to mentally retake the second English test she made for herself. It took her just three minutes to remember all the answers, which was even worse than the 10 minutes it took her when she actually took the test.

That made Annie grunt in frustration loud enough to snap her out of it and actually see where she was. She realized she was at a food court, and willed herself to be quiet before she caused a scene. With that in mind, Annie quietly looked for somewhere to sit down and relax.

Within a minute, she saw that there was an open chair next to the high school-aged girl who was taking notes and reading a real live history textbook. Somehow, Annie avoided screeching in joy and made herself walk slowly to her, forcing herself to play it cool.

"Oh, wow! That sure takes me back," Annie said nonchalantly to get the girl's attention. "Learning about all those wars….better to learn them than live them, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," the girl said in a way that told Annie she needed a few more good one-liners to get full access to that book. "Don't worry, by the time you do your first diorama on the Bay of Pigs, you'll know for sure."

"Diorama? I'm in high school, dioramas are for middle schoolers." On some remaining sane level, Annie already knew that. But two-and-a-half years of non-stop Greendale dioramas, and the latest reminder that they had finally stopped, pushed Annie to draw a different conclusion from that statement. "Of course, that's what someone trying to hoard the good dioramas might say."

"I'm saying I should go now instead, okay?" But Annie pretty much forced her to stay when she took her notebook and started browsing. "Why, so you can hide the diorama schematics you wrote down? I'll bet you're already hiding the stick figures in your backpack too! Nice try, diorama hoarder, but it won't work on me!"

One of the least creepy side effects of this breakdown was that it left the girl too distracted to notice when Annie took her backpack off the floor. Before she knew it, Annie had opened it and was throwing everything out that wasn't part of a diorama – which applied to everything in that backpack. Yet since Annie was in no condition to realize that, she just kept ranting. "Where are those stick figures? I'll do a cavity search if I have to, you're not gonna get away with being that clever!"

Instead of confessing, the girl just said "What the hell, psycho? Are you on Adderall or something?"

After over a month and a half of no school, futile attempts to make hard tests for herself, being entrapped by a revenge plan from a bored evil dean, and now threatening to strip search a high schooler….it was startling that just one word could make Annie's insanity freeze.

But that one word that started with an A had too much history and memories to not hold that power. Too much association with an Annie that she hated with every fiber of her being. And now it carried too much shame now that it made her remember she was that Annie all over again.

For all of the times the group saw her Disney face, even they would have been stunned by how crestfallen it was now. But she wasn't trying to make it that forlorn and over the top; it was putting on that ashamed, eye-watering look all on its own. It only actually worked on people who knew her and who didn't have their backpacks torn apart by her. Yet she wasn't using it to earn forgiveness, since she suddenly knew she didn't deserve it.

"I am so sorry…..I'm so sorry," Annie muttered, then kept saying sorry over and over as she put the girl's belongings back in her backpack. But now that she was self-aware again, she realized she wasn't making herself sound saner by the 10'th "I'm sorry" so she clammed up and backed away after she finished packing up. To her credit, she avoided any crying jags until she got to the nearest toilet in the bathroom, and even then they only took five minutes instead of the rest of her life.

When she was crying jagged out for the moment, Annie emerged from the toilet and started wiping her eyes in front of the sink. As she looked at her reflection, she remembered how she ran through it and the rest of the plate glass window at the height of her last addiction. This one had a less ugly climax by comparison, but it was still worse because she should have known better by now.

Then again, it was hard to argue that she was capable of knowing better in the first place. She may not be addicted to pills anymore, but she was still the same old addicted Annie in other ways. Her addiction to school work, getting A's and the structure of college was even longer than her Adderall spell, and she still wouldn't quit despite the trouble it caused her. Yet she defended it since this addiction was actually supposed to help her get a great life – but it couldn't help if she was locked out of her own school.

Still, that was not a valid excuse anymore; though for someone also addicted to study groups, emotionally unavailable men and acting like the child she insisted she wasn't, it made sense that it was valid once. It didn't make it any less humiliating when it finally became clear.

At least she only hurt herself when she was on pills. Her present addictions made her all but assault a current high school girl, and sometimes endanger the study group even when they were at Greendale. Even after all those mistakes and all the lessons she learned from those misadventures, Annie kept forgetting them in time for her next obsession. Abed would call that shoddy writing and character development that usually signals the end of a once great show.

That made even more sense since the end seemed to be near at Greendale, and Annie had shown no ability to survive without school and classes for a spring. Yet she would have no choice but to survive a year-and-a-half from now, if graduation was still possible. How would that Annie survive, and how would a year-and-a-half make any difference if two-and-a-half years hadn't so far? She'd just be reminded of that all over again tomorrow when the group got those audio files and they looked down on her, or gave her even more guilt-inducing pity.

She could picture exactly what they'd say, although by the time they actually said it in person, she would have yelled at herself more than enough already. Yelled at herself with questions like "How can you make these same mistakes over and over?" Or "How do you keep doing these things when you know it's wrong and childish?" Or "How does someone who puts herself through rehab keep being so weak?" Or "How could someone who unearthed a conscience in Jeff Winger ignore hers like this?" Or "How does someone who made herself get friends for the first time keep risking their friendship and disappointment so often?" And there was the classic "Would you really have that little going on and that little to do if you didn't study 23 hours a darn day?"

She really didn't back then…..but as she went over the first part of all those questions, she was reminded of things she had once again conveniently forgotten. She did have much more going on now. And she did have much more to be proud of than just another few A's. Why wasn't that enough for her to go on when those A's weren't available?

Annie was still no less ashamed of herself, yet now that was because she had concrete examples to tell her that she was capable of much better. If she was brave enough to pull herself out of pill addictions, she should certainly be brave enough to not take tests for one hiatus….no matter how ungodly long it was getting. Even that little comment signaled it was still going to be difficult now, but there had to be enough strength left in her to get through it.

If she was going to sum it up, it would eventually have to happen outside of this bathroom. So Annie finished drying her eyes, straightened herself up and left, making sure her back was completely turned to the food court. Once she was assured that no one would notice her or remember her outburst, she relaxed and resolved to have a nice, normal walk through the mall; before going home and resting for tomorrow's emotional rollercoaster.

"Annie?" Okay, she should have been sane enough now to not hear familiar voices like this. But then again, if she was imagining this, she would have heard a more familiar voice like Jeff or Abed or Britta. So she was relieved that she didn't imagine them – yet more confused when she realized who the voice belonged to.

Her confusion only increased when she turned and realized she wasn't hearing things. She actually heard Dean Pelton, and he was actually here in the mall besides her. "Dean?"

"Oh….oh God, you caught me unprepared! Of course you caught me unprepared today! Hold on, you just stay right there and pretend you didn't see me!" Annie had no time to answer him before he left, as if she would have any idea what to say to that. She tried to come up with theories and got nowhere; which probably would have been the case even if she wasn't on mental breakdown recovery.

But Dean Pelton shortly showed up again, and instead of clearing things up he just said "What's the Dean-ieo?" like he would have in his usual entrance to the study room. Yet this time, he didn't have any useless news updates to pass along and he wasn't in a costume either. In fact, he actually broke down after his pun and yelled "Oh God, that's the best one I could think of? I had at least a few dozen better ones on my list….which of course, I didn't bring with me! The one day I don't bring that or my sister's new outfits just has to be the day one of them finally shows up!"

"Dean….what exactly are you freaking out about now?" Annie asked carefully.

"Like you or any of them would know! I've been waiting for Jeffrey, and to a far lesser extent the rest of you, to drop by here for weeks! Then I could greet you and show off my figure like the old days….and it's a pretty fit figure since I don't eat as much anymore! When there's no school to run and no study group to hang out with, what else can you not do?"

"Wait….you've hung around here all this time just to run into us and do your bits again?" Annie asked more seriously.

"Well, you guys just pulled off a great bit where you only show up when I'm unprepared! So you can tell Jeffrey it was one of his top 10 sketches…..it can't compare with his impression of me, but since I barely remember what it sounded like anymore, how would I know?" Luckily, the Dean was breaking down at the other end of the mall, so no one who saw Annie's breakdown was probably watching. Yet Annie felt a bit like getting angry again herself.

She was counting on the Dean to get Greendale reopened and get her back to where she belonged. Yet he was spending all his time preparing to do his old creepy running gags with the group instead. Annie figured she should have expected nothing less from someone who let Greendale die on his watch in the first place. But she still felt like letting the Dean have it for wasting his time and clinging to old memories and missing Greendale way too much…..

And going through exactly what Annie had for weeks on end as well.

She had her studies to cling to, and Dean Pelton had his puns, costumes and stalking of the study group. Now that Annie was aware of the madness she went through because she lost her routine, she saw the madness and sadness that the Dean was going through in losing his as well. Granted, his brand of madness made Annie feel a little better about her own….but not enough to make her feel less guilty.

As Annie watched Dean Pelton sink to his knees and go through the same crying jags that she had a while ago – almost down to the same high pitched squeal – her guilt was replaced by a desire to do the grown-up thing. "Dean?" she asked quietly in hopes of getting him to stop crying.

"Cool Deans! Dean the torpedoes! Dean the night away! Dean Dean revolution! Oh, one of those would have been so much better! Even without the sailor suit, one of them might have worked!" Dean Pelton rambled in his own little world.

"Craig!" Annie yelled before she caught herself and realized she had called an authority figure by his first name for the first time ever; even if it was just Pelton. But since Dean wasn't working well, this would have to do, and it did seem to get Pelton to stop crying and notice her. "Craig….I think we should go have a talk somewhere."

So Annie helped the Dean get up and head over to the food court on the opposite end of the mall. Since this wasn't the same food court as before, Annie figured they would be safe from ridicule and reminders of her own embarrassing behavior. No one she or the Dean knew could eavesdrop on them here.

What they didn't know was that the object of both their affections was in a position to do that right now.

Jeff knew for some time that Dean Pelton was stalking the mall, waiting to run into him or the others so he could put on another crazy outfit and greet them like old times. He had successfully avoided him four times before he knew to stay on the other side of the mall. This had served him well for weeks as he succeeded in his goal of shopping and doing nothing on this blessed hiatus. Or at least it served well until the boredom set it.

Boredom was one of Jeff's ideal goals in life, yet actually doing nothing for weeks on end wasn't as fun as it was supposed to be. Not being in Greendale and not going through a crazy adventure every week with the group wasn't supposed to be the bad kind of boredom. What's worse, he couldn't even risk seeing the others and give them a chance to find out he really didn't like being bored. He certainly couldn't go near Annie or she'd figure it out in two seconds flat…..which made it fortunate that she didn't drop by like he thought she would every other day. Fortunate was the right word.

There was no way Jeff would risk her finding out about today, this was for sure. She and the others could never know that he was this bored and…..well, nostalgic was probably the word he could best live with. So nostalgic that he actually returned to this side of the mall and was planning to let Dean Pelton "accidentally" run into him and perform his creepy come-ons and costume changes after all. Laying into him and mocking him for the first time in two months should be enough of a fix to get him through the next two months, or so he hoped. After that, he could enjoy doing nothing and being away from all things Greendale again, as Shirley's God intended.

So Jeff sat at the food court behind a few mall plants and waited for the Dean to notice him. But after a longer wait than expected, he turned around and looked for any signs of him. After a few moments, he finally got a glance at a familiar bald head of hair coming this way. But when he spotted an even more familiar head of…..memorable brunette hair next to it, he dived back behind the plants on instinct.

Eventually, Jeff got himself to look through the plants and see that he wasn't seeing things out of Greendale withdrawal. Indeed, not only had he actually seen Dean Pelton and Annie walking together, he was seeing them sit together at a table in front of the other side of the plants right now. From his position, Jeff could sit back down and listen in on them without being noticed; although he just went over how he couldn't risk having Annie see him and wrongly realize he missed Greendale.

But as usual, Jeff's initial vows to avoid being near Annie were thrown out the window with one look at her; even with the sight of Dean Pelton along with it. At least this was the first time he felt…..nothing when he saw her alone with another man; if that was the most accurate thing to call the Dean.

"Now what's going on? Are things really that bad at Greendale?" Jeff heard Annie ask.

"They're the furthest thing from good, if that's what bad means to you. I've tried everything….I've pleaded to whatever students and followers we have left on the Internet, I made petitions to the board, and I made Twitter hash tags like 'Eight Semesters and a Diploma!' Nothing's getting through….now we'll have to burn off the spring semester into the summer for sure when we come back!" Being discovered by Annie was the only thing stopping Jeff from reaching over and strangling the Dean for that news. As much as he could be mistaken for missing Greendale, he didn't miss it enough to cut into his regular vacations.

"We could bump each class up to two hours a day until May, but there's no room in the schedule for that! They probably need to keep classes that are past their prime right where they are, and new classes that don't deserve to be there too. Either way, even when we can come back, I don't know how we're going to prove we deserve another full, uninterrupted year! If we even get that chance!" This time, the fear of being discovered was the only thing stopping Jeff from asking if he could get a diploma even with his senior year canceled. If not, then the strangling could begin on cue.

"Okay….okay, it'll be okay. We're still going to come back eventually….we'll just make our case then," Annie reasoned, albeit with that quivering voice Jeff recognized when she tried to convince herself of something more than others.

"I don't know if you've paid attention for the last few minutes, but I'm in no condition to 'make a case' now! And I probably won't be when we get back either! After all this time away from Greendale, I'm pretty much a walking shell of a man. And walking shells can't raise attendance and get 18-to-49 year-olds without Internet access sucked into Greendale, can they?"

"Dean, you're going to be fine," Annie somehow assured with less of a quiver.

"How would you know? I just wasted my 13'th, 18'th, 25'th, 30'th and 150'th best unused Dean puns! What makes you think that kind of man is fine without Greendale?" Being found out nearly wasn't enough of a deterrent to keep Jeff from voicing some new golden one-liners as an answer.

"Because you didn't reread next semester's books six times, or make up tests just to pretend you're still getting straight A's! And you didn't buy City College lesson plans because you were that addicted, or get entrapped by Dean Spreck, or threaten to cavity search a high school girl for dioramas!"

"Well…..that doesn't sound all hard not to do, so how does that make me special?" Dean Pelton asked before Annie went on. Jeff felt something resembling relief that he didn't let Annie go on for some reason; yet that was stopped when Annie finally confirmed "Because you're not someone like me who actually did all that stuff."

Annie hadn't officially decided to tell Dean Pelton about her own problems away from Greendale. She certainly kept it open as an option, although she hadn't committed 100 percent yet. However, he set things up so eerily well for her to confess that she couldn't pass it up. After all, if she was going to face her friends about this tomorrow, she couldn't back away from talking about it with the Dean now.

"Annie…" the Dean stated in a tone mixed with sympathy and a bit of condescension; the same tone the group had gotten good at with her. Yet Annie steeled herself and prepared to actually pour her heart out, even without meticulously planning out how to pour it first.

"It's true….I've been far more of a mental case without Greendale than you. Your Dean puns and 'sister's outfits' have nothing on my A's, school work and note taking. I really was so desperate for them that I've been buying lesson plans from City College for weeks! And of course, my dealer told Dean Spreck and got my madness on tape, and he's going to send the files to my friends tomorrow. It has something to do about weakening us so he can get to you when Greendale reopens, or something crazy like that."

"Why, that clever, seductively brilliant man….God, I even miss his convoluted evil plans!" Dean Pelton cried out.

"I wouldn't worry that much. I think he just misses having Greendale around to pick on, just like us….in his own insane, less heartfelt way. The point is, he's going to make my friends think of me as even more of an obsessed, crazy, childish kid, and it'll be so humiliating! I should get out of town so I can't see the group be disappointed in me, or go to City College to get those files in time!"

"All right, crazy paintball invasion of City College, I am in! That's a far more creative way to wrap up the trilogy than my 200 ideas!" The Dean then paused and reached into his pocket to pull out a notepad. "Oh, so that's the notepad of ideas I brought instead of my pun book. I must have left that under my tower of "Notebook" DVDs instead….huh."

"Dean…" Annie said sternly to get him to focus, figuring it was safe to say that word to him again. Since he wasn't saying his worst nicknames, it seemed safe to go on. "What I'm trying to say is I'm not going to do that stuff. I won't stop him from letting my friends know how crazy I've been….and I'm not going to run when they call me out on it tomorrow."

"But you said you wouldn't like that…..is this one of those meta things that Abed's so crazy about? Ooh, let me guess what movie you're doing, I'm getting better at that! Are you parodying…..Human Centipede: Full Sequence? A bit too soon for our poor stomachs to handle, but I guess Abed's earned a little leeway thanks to….his other recent projects."

"Dean!" Annie repeated a bit more impatiently. "I'm not explaining myself….probably because I'm just figuring this out as I go. Hold on a minute…." Annie realized she would need a little structure to help explain her new life lessons. And now that her head could work out things other than problems she made up and knew the answers to, it came to her pretty quick. "Okay, ready!" she exclaimed before taking a breath and recapping what she was starting to figure out.

"I don't like being reminded that I can be a high strung child. But I know a large part of me still is….and that's okay. It's not okay that I am, but it's okay because I know I am." Annie stopped herself from rambling before making even less sense and going over the Dean's head completely. "I'm not crazy enough that I don't know how crazy I can be….and I can still stop myself when I do go nuts. I did it when I went into rehab by myself and stood up to my mother, and I came to my senses today just from someone saying Adderall! It reminded me that I do know better, and I do know I can't let myself be like this over and over!"

"Look, I'm always going to be an addictive person, even if it isn't over pills or books or sexual tension. But I remembered that I can still stop myself before getting…too out of control to come back from. Even if I forget that for a little while. I can pull myself up, work to make sure I do better when I go nuts next time, and force myself to face the guilt, ridicule and jokes like an adult. I'll probably wind up making the same mistakes again at some point, because let's face it, I'm still me."

"But I can limit the damage next time and do better to make up for it, because I don't just need grades or school to be happy. I have my mind, I have my one good obsession about being better and making people proud of me, and I have friends who will pick me up when I need them….even though I don't need them to bail me out all the time. I really figured things out without them this time...and I'm going to tell them that tomorrow, but let them know I still want their help. Just to help me have fun and keep me busy without school, not to rescue me….there's a difference."

"As long as I remember that, and that I always have it in me to be better than a basket case….I'll be fine even if I never go back to Greendale again. I never would have remembered that before Greendale…I guess it shows what it really taught me. So why should I freak out over losing it for a while when I should remember how lucky I was to have it? Or what I still have because of it? I have a lot that has nothing to do with A's….and I think that's enough for me. At least until the next time I go crazy and it helps bail me out again. But I promise I won't let myself or anyone else down until then!"

Annie may have oversold it a bit, as she would still be miserable if Greendale never reopened. But the memories she had there, the people she loved there, the lessons she already knew there, and how Greendale helped reinforce her abilities to be a better person really wouldn't be taken away if it was closed for good. It was somewhat illogical she could remember all this 20 minutes after assaulting a teenager's backpack; but Annie always knew these things already and knew that's what she wanted to be.

She forgot every few weeks, yet Greendale and everything she'd gained there helped give her the tools to always remember in the end. Perhaps in another three semesters, she might not need any more relapses to remind her. Maybe that could be a good argument to make to whoever thought Greendale wasn't valuable or highly rated enough to keep open. But that was a goal for another day; and judging by the Dean's moved face, her new goals for today were finally being met.

"Wow Annie….I am impressed. You poured your heart and showed you aren't a nutbag after all. And I'm sure your other goal was to make me feel better about myself and show I can survive without Greendale too. So…..when are you going to get to proving that, exactly? Just so I'm ready?" Annie then remembered that she was meaning to get to that at some point.

"Oh, sorry about that! I guess that showed I'm not mistake-free quite yet. Okay….another point is that while I'm helping myself get better, I still want to keep helping other people too. That's why I go all out for friends that need as much or more help than I do….and even acquaintances that aren't as lucky as I am. So that's why I'm inviting you to come to my apartment with me."

"Wow….huh, okay Annie….it's not that other men different from me wouldn't find that flattering and tempting. But although you're not a student at the moment and you hate studying now, you might want to study Greendale's sexual harassment laws before you go cold turkey, okay?"

"What? Oh, gross, come on!" Annie had to bite back a bit of vomit from the thoughts that put in her head. She could certainly remind him of all the times he skirted those harassment laws around Jeff; sometimes literally in skirts. But she was still trying to help this man, in spite of everything. "Now I have to clear this up before you make me change my mind!" Annie exclaimed, before willing herself to go through with spending more time with him.

"I'm taking you to my apartment because Troy and Abed are there. They've been making reboot movie versions of our past adventures while I've been going nuts. I even heard that they're making up evil timelines and making fake cutout goatees by now. Now I'm ready to see what else they've been up to….whatever it is, I'm sure even they wouldn't mind some help. Maybe someone who's been a bigger part of the original adventures lately could work with them. Maybe someone can help with the costumes, and turn out much better in front of the camera than behind it. Do you know someone like that?"

"Oh….oh, this someone doesn't have to have hair or live outside my house, right?" Dean Pelton asked, as he was probably being serious and not going along with the bit. But Annie took mercy on him again and assured "No, it can be you, don't worry. I really need fun with friends instead of books before tomorrow, and you need to do your gags in a….less public place. So let's go take care of that together with Troy and Abed…..but I will kick you off the set if you go anywhere near Abed's director chair. Is that perfectly clear?" Annie finished in a dead serious tone.

"Whoh! Don't scare me with that formidable face and you've got a deal!" Dean Pelton cringed, and it took a while for Annie to realize he wasn't joking and her formidable face actually scared him. Even though he was weaker than the others she tried that on, it still gave her a thrill to have that kind of grown-up intimidation, especially after today.

So she still wasn't perfect even after those big speeches and lessons; but once in a while there were far better things to be. That brought back Annie's usual bright, happy smile back that was normally reserved for the study room and Greendale in general. "That's a done Dean!"

"Oh wow, that's top 20 material right there! Too bad I can't write it down on my paintball threequel pad…" Dean Pelton lamented before he finally got up. "Ah well…shall we to Trobed's, milady?"

"Um….we shall indeed, Dean," Annie said while holding back her usual response to that line. She hoped it wasn't a sign that she'd regret this, yet there were better things to waste regret on. As such, she got up and smiled to follow him out of the mall.

"You know, Annie, I always knew you were the only other one worthy enough for Jeffrey," the Dean had to get in.

"I'll….choose to take that the right way and say thank you," Annie responded, feeling a bit uneasy and creeped out from the Dean's implications. At that moment, she finally felt back at home.

Annie and Dean Pelton were walking away from the mall plants, so they couldn't see Jeff finally sit up and get a better look at them leaving his view. And they couldn't see him focus most of that view on Annie, with that speech worthy of the Winger Hall Of Fame still ringing in his head. It was too touchy feely to full stand tall next to the Winger classics, but as always, Jeff used a different scale when it came to Annie.

Jeff prided himself in his immense pride in himself, which was so large that there was no room for friendship and other emotions about other people until two-and-a-half years ago. But if there was room to be proud of someone other than himself, it would be filled by how incredibly proud he would have been of Annie at that moment; and not as a Greendale parent. Since he wouldn't be able to make himself tell her that out loud tomorrow when the group confronted her, it made something similar to regret fit in there too.

Before several minutes ago, he wanted to make sure she, him and the group didn't have a reason to meet tomorrow. He was just about ready to find Spreck and lawyer him out of sending those audio files; or use more direct threats if that didn't work. But once more, Annie had gently but forcefully talked him out of doing something wrong and underhanded; only without knowing it this time. If she wanted to face the music and show the group she still knew better and could handle her problems like an adult, without someone else nagging her….Jeff couldn't bring himself to stop her.

He'd just have to pretend those tapes and her confessions were new to him and find a more Winger-like way to stand by her. Hopefully it would come without being condescending to the young woman first; and he forced himself to put the emphasis on young _woman, _at least this time. If Annie could realize the error of her ways and actually do something about it….even without Jeff…..he should do that for her tomorrow even if it risked making an effort. If only for a second.

But he could start tonight by not going on any secret, morality-skewing missions for her without her permission. Maybe he could also find an excuse to drop by the apartment tonight….after all, it was where he needed to go now to get bugged by the Dean again. And if it helped Annie better enjoy her first night of fun in weeks before she "confessed" her latest addictions to him tomorrow….it wouldn't be the worst side effect.

At the least, it justified letting Spreck stay alive for 24 more hours, if only barely. And if only for 24 more hours.


End file.
